While an official public announcement has not yet been made by Google, an email sent out to G Suite administrators recently revealed that Gmail will soon have a new look.
The update will hit the Early Adopter Program for both regular Gmail and G Suite users within the next few weeks and touts easy access to G Suite apps from directly within Gmail.
This means that users will be able to take advantage of Google apps such as Google Calendar, Keep or Tasks and have them right at their fingertips in Gmail via a sidebar. Screenshots obtained by The Verge show off the new user interface.
Based on The Verge’s report, there will be three different view options available. The default view will bring attachments to the forefront. The “Compact” view will remain the closest to the current Gmail design, while displaying the most messages on screen. The “Comfortable” view will be similar to the default, while not highlighting attachments. Users can decide which one is to their liking when the redesign eventually launches.
Overall the redesign looks clean and well refined. The sidebar will certainly take some getting used to but we can see the potential it has for managing your day to day workflow from within a single web page.
The Gmail redesign is most likely not going to be the only change we’ll be seeing soon though. The company will be hosting its annual I/O developer conference from 8 May 2018 until 10 May 2018 and it’s likely that further plans will be revealed then.
